Happy New Year! Johannah the Smite Priest will kick off the January NaBloPoMo THE BEST posts by looking at the five best smite priest loots you can find in the ICC 5-man dungeons released in 3.3. These 5-man dungeon pieces are obtainable simply by diving into your dungeon randomizer tool and grinding through those instances until you’re lucky enough to see [and win] the drop; no raiding or emblems required! (Though emblems are an obvious bonus.)

Note that these items are friendly to smite priests and, as such, will come along with hit. Not that grand for healers! Check back tomorrow for the same list, healing priest style. (Shadow priests will also benefit from these items, but due to the nature of itemization between smite and Shadow, they might not be as ideal.)

In no particular order (I’m doing a circle around the WoW Armory doll)…

1. Chest. Ancient Polar Bear Hide. Ick, Pit of Saron. I’m a big fan of the spirit and haste on this (although you’ll want to make sure you have an ample crit rating before getting too much haste; see the Lvl 80 Smite Priest Raiding Guide for more on itemization.) What I like the most though is the fact that druids seem to take offense to the item’s name; lots of laughs. Alternatively, the Mord’rethar Robes will give you the precious spirit you need for mana regen if you’re already hit capped.
2. Bracers. Bracers of Worn Molars. Falric, Halls of Reflection. Crit and hit rating; totally designed for the smite priest save the lack of spirit! When you’re trying to pick which slots are going spiritless (since smite priests really need spirit on at least half their gear, if not two thirds), bracers should definitely be on the list. It’s hard to pass these up.
3. Off-hand Frill. The Shriveled Heart. The Captain’s Chest, Halls of Reflection. Off-hands are hard to come by, and this one comes packed with haste and crit rating. Of course, you’ll have to deal with one of the ugliest, level-30 graphics in WotLK.
4. Wand. Soulsplinter. Falric, Halls of Reflection. Get your hit and crit in one item with this wand. Wands don’t rain from the sky like some other slots, so it’s always a plus to find a nice one.
5. Gloves. Suspiciously Soft Gloves. Marwyn, Halls of Reflection. Crit rating, spirit, and a hilarious name? These are the best smite priest dungeon gloves around. Of course, with the lack of hit rating, it might not work if you’re still putting your first set together.

Looks like a lot of Halls of Reflection! Make sure to grab a good tank.

Stick around for other THE BEST entries in January from Johannah the Smite Priest.

I know I’m not alone in the masochistic pool of WoW players. As an example, I’m certainly not the only person with a Winterspring Frostsaber story to tell. Then there’s things like doing every one of those Holiday achievements for that mount that flies a nanosecond faster (shaman has it, thought of doing it twice for my priest gives me shudders), and the torturous experience I refuse to put myself through, Insane in the Membrane. (Fuyuko’s got an Insane in the Membrane Guide if you’re dumb enough to do it, btw.)

I do these painful, exciting things outside of WoW too; such as participating in rigorously demanding writing events like National Blog Posting Month. Johannah the Smite Priest was part of the event in November, and my now-retired fiction blog had partaken in it in the past in the well, to the point where I thought I was secure to move on from that torturous endeavor. Then they sent me an email.

January’s theme is THE BEST.

And don’t WoW players like to know THE BEST of everything? The best spec, the best piece of gear, the best thing to scream when you run into a clump of whelps to intentionally wipe your raid. Well, Johannah the Smite Priest is here to deliver! For the month of January, I’ll be exploring the best of every aspect of the priest raiding world. There’ll be some PvP spice in there too, for sure.

Before I embark on this dangerous journey that will tear out yet another sliver of my insanity, I am curious: what would you like to see the best of? Answer the poll or, better yet, leave a comment with a suggestion! THE BEST will begin on New Years!

I’m a month late on this, but I wanted to give a heads up to other smite priests that Fuyuko over at the Unconventional Priest has switched to a smite priest blog. Yay for another smite priest blogger! I’m hoping between Fuyuko and Xelaeno at Holy Fire Spec, we can overthrow that ridiculous Elitist Jerks thread on smite priesting at the top of Google’s “smite priest” search provide a wealth of resources for priests interested in smite spec in Wrath of the Lich King.

Fuyuko brought up an excellent point in the last post about how difficult it can be for priests to make the switch over to smite spec. (Oh, but we’ll convert you all yet…) For priests that are stumbling upon one or more of our blogs in search of the how’s and what’s of Holy DPS, here are three recommendations I can make:

1. Don’t just respec and jump into a group! There’s a reason I call the Lvl 80 Smite Priest Raiding Guide a raiding guide, not an instance guide. Trust me, it works dandy for instances (there’s no way I’m paying respec fees between 5-mans, 10-mans, and 25-mans on top of the respecs I do anyway to randomly dabble in Discipline and Shadow), but you should be ready and equipped for raids before you even think about smiting. Fuyuko and my hit post make it clear on how difficult it is to put this gear together. I highly recommend either a) healing and collecting emblems [assuming Shadow makes your skin crawl like me] or b) doing what Fuyuko mentioned and just specing Shadow until you get your gear together. Easier to roll on hit gear when you’re the well-known priest DPS tree.
2. Try it out in the security of your own guild first. The new dungeon randomizer makes it so easy for you to just leap into the fray of a bunch of people you don’t know, but people are going to criticize/mock you. It’s best to at least learn the ropes of smite in the comfort of people that you know won’t “WTF” you for it before going out into the harsh and judgment land of random queue. That said, the randomizer is amazing for getting all the hit gear you need really fast.
3. Have dual spec. There are going to be times when you just can’t smite, especially if you’re currently doing ICC. It has it’s moments, and I’m a big fan for it (*looks around at the blog*), but you should always have a healing spec–or, if you simply have to DPS, a Shadow spec–to fall back on when smite’s weaknesses (like Saurfang’s enrage timer + a learning raid) are bringing you down.

Welcome, Fuyuko, to the… smite priest blogging… land… place. Make sure to go visit Fuyuko’s blog to read more about WotLK smite priesting!